In some parts of the world today, we do see the importance of children - those who are used as child labour. This is a far cry from what we see in this passage where Jesus points out the importance of children, not only for those who are children, but how we are to act if we wnat to follow Jesus. What do we need to do to enter the Kingdom of God? The rich man found that it was not his outward actions that would get him to heaven - in the end it would be his own desires that would make him fail before God. We can't make it to heaven by ourselves. We need to follow Jesus and surrender our life to Him.